Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Houston Post
Tuesday morning, October 4, 1898
Pg. 7

Miss Mae Mosse

Ella Mae Mosse was born in Denison on Monday, March 8, 1880, a daughter of Arthur J. Mosse and Elnora Dunn Moss. Arthur was part-owner in the the agricultuary supply house, Tignor & Mosse, which was established in Denison in 1872.
Mae graduated from The Washington School, later becoming Denison High School, in 1897 and from the University Texas at Austin, being a member of the education honorary sorority, Delta Kappa Gamma.
Miss Mosse married Samuel Houston Gardner on Wednesday, June 26, 1907; Mr. Gardner was laster Postmaster and Mayor of Honey Grove, Fannin Co., Texas. Mae taught school in Honey Grove for 30 years, was a member of the McKenzie Methodist Church where she sang in the church choir and was a member of the Wesleyan Service Guild. The couple had three children ~ Mary Eversole, Sam Gardner, and Gene Gardner.
Samuel Houston Gardner died in 1951; Mae Mosse Gardner died in 1964 at the age of 84. Both are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Honey Grove, Fannin Co., Texas. [FAG 36416695]

Denison, Texas, October 2 - The Post last week told the story of the wreck on the Houston & Texas Central railroad at Chambers Creek, and described the Denison young lady who was the heroine of the occasion. When a portion of the train plunged from the trestle into the abyss of water below, Miss Mosse went down with it. Superintendent Daffan, who was seated in the same car with Miss Mosse, was hopelessly pinned to the floor with several seats piled on top of him. Miss Mosse was the only woman who did not scream or go into hysteria. In that supreme moment of surrounding horror, she noticed how hopelessly was the condition of Mr. Daffan and went to his assistance. The war [sic] rushed into the car windows and flowed through the open doors. Wading waist deep in the water, Miss Mosse reached the prostrate form of Mr. Daffan and kneeling, lifted his head into her lap. It was not a moment too soon, as the water had almost reached his lips.
When she saw Mr. Daffan out of danger, she went to the assistance of others in the car who were injured and groaning in anguish and pain.
Miss Mae Moss is a graduate of the Denison public schools and is the first young lady pupil of this city who has gone to the University at Austin. She is the daughter of Mr. A.J. Mosse and is not quite 18 years of age.

The Houston Post
Tuesday, September 27, 1898
pg. 1

WRECK ON THE H. & T.C.
Fourteen Persons Were Hurt, Two Probably Fatal
Two Coaches Went into a Creek
Chair and Parlor Car Fell from a Twelve Foot Bridge
TRACK WAS BADLY TORN UP
Agent Berry Was Saved from Drowning by a Woman
A Statement by the Company
Judge Davis and Mr. Moore of Dallas are the Worst Hurt, but Neither Yet Dead

Judge A.B. Davis, Oak Cliff, Texas; bruised about the head and body and fracture of skull; barely alive and expected to die at any moment
R.W. Moore, Trenton, Texas; mouth and nose cut, head bruised and injuries in chest
R.D. Berry, Dallas; face cut, arms bruised
L.A. Daffan, Ennis; division superintendent of the Houston & Texas Central railway; hand cut, shoulder sprained and possible internal injuries
William Gaunt, St. Louis; hip wrenched, and slight cuts about the head
John R. Richardson, Richland, Texas; internal injuries
D.A. Duncan, Brownsville, Texas; knee hurt
E.B. Orne, Paris, Texas; head bruised
A.B. Yantis, Roby, Texas; internal injuries
W.J. Robinson, Ennis; brakeman; chin cut and finger mashed
Will Wade, colored porter in chair car; slightly hurt
Miss Pearl Foster, Calvert; slightly bruised

Corsicana, Texas, September 28 - The southbound Houston and Texas Central passenger train due here at 12:03 was wrecked six miles north of this city while going at a high rate of speed. The tender of the engine jumped the track on a short bridge, throwing the last two coaches, which consisted of parlor and chair car, from the track and over a bridge about twelve feet.
The train wrecked was heavily loaded with passengers and running at a high rate of speed, and it is a miracle that any are left to tell the story. The rear wheels of the tender jumped the track on a short trestle, tearing up the track for several hundred feet. The rear coaches - the parlor and chair cars - also jumped the track and ran off a foot bridge, falling into a hole of water several feet deep.
The scene was soon visited by hundreds of Corsicana citizens, who did everything in their power to relieve the injured.
Judge Davis, Mr. Moore, J.R. Richards [sic] and Mr. Yantis are here at a hotel and are being given every attention possible, while Superintendent Daffan and Assistant Freight Agent Berry were taken to Ennis. Senator Yantis arrived at 11 o'clock and is with his brother.
At 12 o'clock Judge Davis is barely alive, being under the influence of opiates.
The remainder of those injured have gone on to their destination. Transfers are being made so as not to delay traffic any more than possible. The track will not be repaired until a later hour tomorrow.
Miss Pearl Moss [sic], a Denison young lady on her way to school in Austin, proved the heroine of the occasion. She was sitting in the chair car near Mr. B.W. Moore of Centerville, who was hurt. When the crash came, he was thrown to the lower end of the car and lay helpless, with his head under water. This brave girl saw his danger and, forgetting her own peril, raised his head out of the water and held it until help came. She also assisted Mr. Daffan, who was also in the water and would have drowned had it not been for her help.
Ticket Agent R.B. Seay is doing much to relieve the suffering of the injured and deserves great credit for the way he manages the business affairs and tends to the wants of the suffers.

Houston Daily Post
Friday Morning, September 30, 1898
pg. 3

HEROINE OF CHAMBERS CREEK
Something of the Practical Young Woman Who Saved Two Men's Lives

Denison, Texas, September 28 - Miss Mae Mosse, the heroine of the Chambers creek wreck on the Central, is the daughter of A.J. Mosse and not W.T. Moss, as published in the Dallas News.
She is just 17 years of age, and was born in this city. She graduated last year in the public schools, Washington building. She is the first graduate of the public schools to go to the University at Austin. She has always been noted for her retiring disposition, loving her books better than society. It is a singular fact that nearly everybody in Denison is asking: "Who is Mae Moss?" They do no know her.
Her father states that she is intensely a matter-of-fact girl. She is not beautiful, but has a charming personality. She is a blonde with blue eyes, fair complexion and wavy light hair.
Today she telegraphed her father of her safe arrival in Austin.
Her father is the junior member of the agricultural supply house of Tignor & Mosse, established 1872.
Mr. Moss, during the civil war, was a member of Longstreet's corps and went up the hill at Gettysburg with General Pickett's brigade.
Mr. Mosse received a letter from his daughter today, in which she says that the water in the chair car, which went down in Chambers creek, was knee deep. Miss Mosse is bruised about the body and face. She lost her pocket book containing her money, two new hats were floated in the water and ruined. When she reached Superintendent Daffan, he was nearly strangled by the water, which had reached his lips. In the letter she says, further, that she thinks she save another life - a Mr. Moore. After the wreck, passengers embraced her and complimented her so much that she was abashed. She concludes in her letter that she simply did her duty, and said for her parents not to worry.

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, October 2, 1898
pg.4

Railroad Rumblings
The H & T.C. passenger train went off of a trestle on Chambers Creek Monday. Chambers creek is on the main line, five miles north of Corsicana. A sleeper and a chair car plunged over the trestle. Judge G.W. Davis was crushed under a seat and fatally injured. A.B. Yantis, a brother of State Senator Yantis, was caught between seats and badly crushed. He may recover. John Richardson of Richland was pulled from the wreck with great difficulty. Superintendent L.A. Daffan was thrown violently against the rear end of the chair car and received dangerous spinal injuries. A later report says that Superintendent Daffan had two fingers cut off.
A Denison girl figured in the wreck. The chair car went off in a pool of water and it is said that R.D. Berry would have been drowned bur for aid rendered by Miss Mae Mosse of Denison, en route to school at Austin. She bravely supported his head above water until help came. The wreck was caused by the sleeping car's hind truck leaving the rail.
"We now suppose that Miss Mae Mosse, the heroine of the Chambers Creek railway accident, will receive many offers of marriage and demands for her photograph."

A column from the same edition of the The Sunday Gazetteer re-told the heroic acts of Mae Mosse includes a letter from Superintendent Daffan of the Houston & Texas Central Railway

The Sunday Gazetter
October 1898

A DENISON HERO IN
A tender, confiding, modest school girl was the heroine of the most terrible wreck on the Central at Chambers Creek.
By the time the Gazetteer reaches its readers, her praise will be sounded by the newspapers throughout the land.
The heroine is a Denison miss who was born and reared here, and yet is hardly known outside of the family circle. Hundreds of people have asked the past week, "who is Miss Mae Moss?" I did not know that such a girl lived in Denison." She is the daughter of A.J. Mosse of the firm of Tignor and Mosse.
Now it is a little singular, a few days ago the writer called at the office of Tignor and Mosse on a soliciting errand. There seated at the desk a young girl. Some one told him that she was the daughter of Mr. Mosse. Recalling the incident, the image left was a girl., the embodiment of gracefulness and kindness, who is at once our ideal as to what a young woman ought to be and is.
The papers have told the story of her heroic and self-sacrificing conduct at the wreck.. When a portion of the train plunged from the trestle into the abyss of water below, Miss Mosse went down with it..Superintendent Daffin, who was seated in the same car with Miss Mosse, was hopelessly pinned to the floor with several seats piled on top of him. Miss Mosse was the only woman who did not scream or go into hysteria. In that supreme moment of surrounding horror, she noticed how hopelessly was the condition of Mr. Daffin and went to his assistance. The water rushed into the car windows and flowed through the open doors. Wading waist deep in the water, Miss Mosse reached the prostrate form of Mr. Daffin and, kneeling, lifted his head into her lap. It was not a moment too soon as the water had almost reached his lips.
What a scene that would have been for an artist. A young girl in the softness, tenderness and beauty of youth, kneeling in the water with the wreck all around her, succoring a helpless fellow being.
There has been nothing more heroic done in all Texas during the closing year.
Under any circumstances this girl would have become courageous in danger and hopeful in death.
At last, in that dreadful suspence, timely relief came and Mr. Daffin was rescued more dead than alive.
The coolest head among all these 200 passengers was Miss Mosse. When she saw Mr. Daffin out of danger, she went to the assistance of others in the car who were injured and groaning in anguish of pain.
Miss Mae Mosse is a graduate of the Denison public schools and is the first lady pupil who has gone to the university at Austin. She is not the daughter of W.T. Mosse, as published in the Herald, but A.J. Moss.
Her father fold the Gazetteer that she is...practical, who loved her studies better than society. He seemed to take it for granted that in a crisis like that at Chambers creek, she did exactly what he would expect of her as of a retiring disposition, domestic in her habits, and very devoted to her parents.
How far in the past and valueless is the respectability which comes to birth and education, compared with that which, by faithfulness and honor, and sometimes through danger and suffering, a girl makes for herself.

MISS MOSSE'S H EROISM
John Day Daffan, son of Superintendent Daffin, of the H. & T.C., handed the Dallas News correspondent at Ennis the following acknowledgement.

Ennis, Texas, Sept. 27 - In behalf of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad company, those injured, and the train crew, I desire to express my heartfelt gratitude and admiration of Miss Mae Mosse of Denison, Texas, who so heroically came to the assistance of those injured in the wreck at Chambers creek yesterday.
The plucky young woman waded in water up to her waist and saved the life of one of the passengers by holding his head out of the water while he was unconscious. Miss Mosse is the "Uncrowned Queen" of the Houston and Texas Central railroad company, and if the employes can ever serve her in any capacity they will deem it an honor.
Each and every one of the employes of the road, and those injured, beg to remain always her most obedient servant, who kiss her hand.